Long emergency room waits continue to be a symptom of a larger problem at the Pasqua and General hospitals in Regina.
One of the big challenges in emergency departments in Saskatchewan and across Canada is there is a number of patients who could be better served in the community, but they can’t see their family doctor or nurse practitioner in a timely way or they don’t have a practitioner at all, said Glen Perchie, executive director of Emergency and EMS with the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR).
“It might not be life threatening, but it’s painful so you go to the emergency department,” he said. “We know that if we can bolster primary health care in the community and really get a comprehensive network of primary health care, we know that we can divert a lot of patients from acute care.”
He acknowledged that both hospitals have “been having some pretty full days again.”
Currently, the average ER wait times are similar to those of the past two years. That’s partly because the number of people going to the ERs has increased — close to 10,000 more patients registered at the two emergency rooms since April 2014.
“Despite a 10-per-cent increase in patients coming to the ER in Regina, we have been able to prevent significant increases in waiting times,” Perchie noted.
Patients with life-threatening conditions are treated immediately. Those with ailments such as chronic back pain and people with non-urgent complaints, such as sore throats, have the longest waits.
A lot of work has been done by the region’s patient flow team, which has drilled into data to determine what’s causing the backlogs.
“The admission times is a really big piece,” Perchie said.
When the hospital is at full capacity, patients can’t move from the ER to the wards because there are no beds available.
“We are running at very high capacities,” Perchie said. “Backlogs and overcapacity and wait times in the emergency department are more of a symptom of a bigger problem versus a problem in of itself … It’s going to take time and investment.”
Many patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are treated in the ERs.
“They can be some of our sickest patients, but there’s really good evidence that if they’re well managed and supported in the community, we can prevent a lot of admissions for them,” Perchie said. “That would have a really big impact on our whole system.”
When the ERs are at maximum capacity and staffing is maxed out, advanced-care and primary-care paramedics are called in for support. In the past, the RQHR contemplated using nurse practitioners in the ER, but instead decided to use them in the community for programs such as the seniors home visiting program.
The Connecting to Care program — formerly known as the hotspotting strategy — has three paramedics, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and social workers working closely with people with complex needs who are frequently in the emergency department. Many are there due to mental health or addictions problems.
Published: November 9, 2015; Regina LeaderPost
Source: http://www.leaderpost.com/health/Taking+pulse+Regina/11505039/story.html
